Patrick Leahy

Patrick Leahy (31 March 1940-) was a US Senator from Vermont (D) from 3 January 1975, succeeding George Aiken.

Biography
Patrick Leahy was born in Montpelier, Vermont on 31 March 1940, and he graduated from Saint Michael's College and Georgetown University. He became an associate at the firm of Governor Philip H. Hoff, and he became a State's Attorney of Chittenden County in 1966. In 1974, he was elected to the US Senate for the first time, serving as a Democratic Party member. He was only 34 years old on election, and he was the first non-Republican senator from Vermont since 1856 and one of only three Democrats to represent Vermont in either house of the US Congress since the end of the American Civil War. He held typical progressive views, supporting abortion rights, states' rights in the case of marijuana legalization, gay marriage, progressive taxation, gun control, affirmative action, Social Security, and the anti-Iraq War movement.